After five years of leading the HeartWood editorial staff, our founding editor Danielle Kelly has chosen to step away from the publication in order to spend more time on her own creative and professional endeavors. I’m sure I speak for all of us on the HeartWood editorial board, the low-residency MFA program at West Virginia Wesleyan College, and the wonderful contributors to the past nine issues in thanking her from the bottom of our hearts for her passion, devotion, and direction in establishing this magazine as well as guiding and honoring our mission. We are all the better for it.

I have been involved with HeartWood as a poetry editor since its founding, and it is a great honor and privilege to transition into the role of Managing Editor. It is also, of course, a challenge to follow the legacy which our founding editor has set before me, but one I am eager to undertake.

I thank you, kind reader, in joining me as we work to continue featuring creative work from around the world that delves into the heart of humanity—that glorious intersection of what makes us unique and what makes us united.

I am excited to share the first issue that came together on my watch, and I hope you enjoy reading it. My deepest gratitude to my patient and dedicated team of editors, as well as the contributors who have trusted us to share their work.

Warmest regards,
Jessica Spruill Waggoner
Managing Editor, HeartWood Literary Magazine